Thank Goodness for Past Students

Last school year I had a wonderful student named Laura Ortiz. She was not only a good student, but also a member of yearbook club, science fair participant, and a translator for me and my ELL students. I became very close with her throughout the year, met her family members, and even went to her house to help her with her science fair project. She has come back several times already this year to visit and chat and I now have her brother this year.

Upon one of her visits a week or so ago, I mentioned that I was selling my car and she offered to tell her dad to see if his friends needed a car. Sure enough she came back this week and left me a note that someone was interested in the car! Her father stopped by school on Friday and asked if I could bring the car to his house on Saturday for the guy to look at it. So, yesterday at noon I SOLD MY CAR to the guy for $3,800!!! I was pretty happy with this as it is more than half of what I orginially purchased it for and have driven it for 4-5years.

I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Laura about how high school is and then ate some of her mother's home made chile relleno. It was delicious! She even gave me some to take home for lunch. It was very interesting to be there with her and her family and seeing them interact. Laura's mother doesn't speak english, but understands some and they are teaching her two youngest brothers a little english. The conversation that I did have with her mother was translated by Laura, which was fascinating to experience the ability of bilingualism.

The cultural differences are quite vast and made some of the things I learned in my CTEL courses a reality. Laura's cousin from Mexico now lives with them because if she would have stayed in Mexico her family would have made her drop out to start working to help the family. I felt so bad for this girl because not only does she not understand ANY english but she is miles away from her immediate family. I guess that is the price you have to pay though in order to get an education and better yourself. While I think it is very hard to work/live in an area such as this with all the cultural and language barriers, I can't imagine immigrating here and being immersed in a country where almost no one speaks my language or understands my culture. I guess being an American and having access to free education and opportunity isn't all that bad after all.

Oh, and as I was leaving yesterday, the ice cream truck was belting out a familiar tune... the ice cream truck version of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" I got a kick out of this! I could n't help but share. That is California for ya!

The Week in Review

I managed to get my rear in gear after that spell of unmotivation and really hammer out all the things necessary to start the school year. Tuesday did come way too fast though...I found myself at Bill and Alan's on Labor Day thinking to myself, "Wow, I really have to go back to work tomorrow and pretend to be a teacher again!" Having the whole summer off made it exceptionally hard to get back into the swing of things. Speaking of having the summer off...

A big article was run in the Desert Sun (our newspaper) just this past week about all the elementary and middle schools in the PSUSD potentially moving to a year round system. I guess from the teacher talk I've heard it is in fact going to happen as it is one of the goals of our new superintendant. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this though... on one hand it would be great for our ELL population in developing solid language skills without such a long break of no exposure to English. Another plus is that there is not as much teacher and student burn out we would have 3 months on and then 1 month off. This is awesome for people who like to travel and such as peak times are generally in the summer months so airfares would be cheaper. However I really wanted to do a Masters program that was during the summer only so that I wouldn't have to juggle school and teaching at the same time. This system would totally ruin that for me and I'd have to find a new program and I don't want to do it online (Aunt Pam, you'll have to let me know how that goes). So...enough of that.

As for my first week back to school, it was flawless! The second time around is SO MUCH easier! I really am enjoying having two grade levels and two different things to teach, it is a little more work, but it is so much more enjoyable for me. I also am really excited about our new textbook adoption and so far it is working really well. I think that the book itself is a little "dumbed down" for lack of a better phrase, but for the student population I work with it is wonderful! We have all these great tools and materials to do investigations with and I think the kids are really going to do well with the help of this adoption.

As for students this year, no famous names:( But I do have some crazy ones to pronounce: Ixchelt, Montecerrat, Braulio, Arnulfo, and many more. Get ready to hear hilarious stories about Pedro Rodriguez (my new favorite student) and Juan Carlos, who wants to be called Mike Jones (like the rapper for those of you who don't know). They already are showing their entertaining faces and making me laugh.

I had lots of my old students come to visit this week. It made me feel special that they took the time to come and see me. They all hate high school right now, I told them they just need time to adjust and then it will be great. Cat City High is the biggest hs in the valley and apparently it is overcrowded, they don't like this either.

Well I'm off to grade papers, do some planning, then pool hang...I know you are all jealous, especially of the paper grading (I have over 200 this year)